Friday Food Truck Photo, July 29

These are cake push pops (red velvet-cream cheese and chocolate-peanut butter) from the Batter Bowl Truck. Such a whimsical and portable container - and I felt like a kid again when I ate one. The red velvet cake was incredibly moist. Sadly, I lost the chocolate push pop before I could taste it. I disappeared somewhere between the food truck and my car. Guess that means I'll have to go back and get another one!

Sticky Wings

As soon as I saw this recipe in the America Test Kitchen's Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook, I started craving wings. And I don't eat wings very often. Call me a wuss, but I'm not a fan of completely covering my fingers in a gooey sauce in order to eat my food. These wings, however, looked too good to pass up.


Unlike some of the recipes in the Slow Cooker Revolution, this one was super easy: mix the sauce ingredients, dump it into the slow cooker with the wings, and cook. A short stint under the broiler crisped up the skin and caramelized the sticky sauce. The sauce was sweet and tangy, with just a hint of heat. Once I started eating them, it took a supreme effort to stop.



Sticky Wings
Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution
From America’s Test Kitchen

Wings:
¼ c dark brown sugar
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs minced fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
Dash of cayenne pepper
3 lbs chicken wings, drums and flats*
Salt and pepper

Sauce:
½ c dark brown sugar
½ tsp sambal oelek (or sriracha or ¼ tsp cayenne powder)
3 Tbs soy sauce
¼ c water
¼ c tomato paste

For the wings: Stir together the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and cayenne in a small bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and place in slow cooker. Pour soy sauce mixture in over the wings and toss to coat. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, about 4 hours on low.

Position an oven rack 10 inches from the broiler. Heat on broil. Coat a broiling pan (or a wire rack placed on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet) with non-stick spray. Transfer wings to pan. Discard the liquid.

For the sauce: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Brush the tops of the wings with the sauce. Broil until crispy on top, about 10-15 minutes (check a few times to prevent burning.) Flip wings and brush the tops with the remaining sauce. Broil until crisp and lightly charred, 5-10 minutes longer. Serve.

Friday Food Truck Photo, July 22

I'm starting a new series on Kokocooks: the Friday Food Truck Photo. The food truck trend has taken off here in Central FL, and I am totally hooked. Food trucks park at various locations for lunch all over the city. There are weekday "pods" where small groups of trucks will gather for dinner. And there are frequent Food Truck Bazaars on Sunday evenings, hosted by The Daily City. I usually hit up a food truck at least once a week.


Today's photo is a steak bulgogi taco from the Mobile Deli. Sadly, the Mobile Deli truck is up for sale: the owner is changing careers. We will miss the Mobile Deli and their tasty tacos. Hopefully, a company with equally tasty food will open in their stead.

Disney Cupcake Crawl

The Disney Food Blog is one of my prime sources for food goings-on at Disney. So when A.J. posted a Disney Cupcake Crawl Challenge, I was totally up for it. (below photo: courtesy of The Disney Food Blog.)


Disney generally tends to be a heightened version of reality, and their cupcakes are no exception - they are bigger, more elaborate, and crazier looking than the average cupcake. I knew I would need some help if I wanted to get through a cupcake crawl, so I enlisted the aid of Julie of The Little Kitchen, Jaclyn of Food Plus Words, and Jessica of The Novice Chef. Hubs and the tyke also came along.


The crawl involved 5 locations and 10 cupcakes, spanning across three theme parks and two resorts. We began our journey at the Boardwalk Bakery. They had three cupcakes available: oreo bon bon, orange cream, and s'mores.


We were informally judging the cupcakes on texture, taste, and presentation. All the cupcakes got high marks for presentation. The oreo cupcake had the a fantastic texture, and the orange cream had an incredible flavor. The s'mores cupcake was a little dry.


Next stop was Starring Rolls Cafe at the Hollywood Studios. They had four (!) cupcakes to try: chocolate peanut butter, butterfinger, marble, and red velvet cheesecake. Again, all the cupcakes looked fabulous. However, they were stored in a well-chilled cooler, and I think that affected their texture. If they had come to room temperature before eating, I'm sure they would've been moister.


The cream cheese frosting on the red velvet cupcake was amazing. The butterfinger topping on that cupcake tasted great, especially when combined with the cake. The dense filling of the chocolate peanut butter cupcake was a great combination of both flavors. The only disappointment was the marble cupcake. It was a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of vanilla cake, with hardly a swirl to combine them.


At this point, we were feeling the sugar, so we took a break from cupcakes and rode on Star Tours, and searched for a Star Wars collector's set for Julie's husband. We then headed to the next cupcake stop, the Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery located in the Africa area of the Animal Kingdom.


Here were the most impressive looking cupcakes we had seen so far - a zebra cupcake, a white chocolate elephant cupcake, and a cotton top tamarin cupcake. We oohed and aahed over these cupcakes. However, underneath the fancy tops, the cakes were okay. The toasted coconut on the white elephant cupcake was the best part.


There were still two more stops, but by this point we had reached our heat threshold and sweetness breaking point. We tried a total of 10 cupcakes, which means we added two to the original challenge. We headed for our respective homes to cool off and drink lots of water.


Never one to leave a project unfinished, I followed up a few days later to check out the cupcakes we missed. The vanilla caramel cupcake at the Germany pavilion of Epcot was sorely disappointing. The cake was dry, and the buttercream was hard. I think I got one that was past its prime.


While on our cupcake crawl, we were tweeted by a fan about a must-try cupcake at the Contemporary resort. I headed there and found two fantastic looking cupcakes: the dos leches cupcake, and the Florida strawberry cupcake.


My favorite by far of all the cupcakes I've had (and by this point, that was 12) was the dos leches cake. It was a moist yellow cake, with a caramel filling, topped with a creamy frosting and chocolate shavings. The strawberry cupcake was similar, but with a strawberry filling and a strawberry frosting. The tyke especially liked this one.


And I've saved the best for last. That was the s'mores cupcake at the Wilderness Lodge.


This was a different s'mores cupcake than the one we tried at the Boardwalk Bakery. It consisted of a graham cracker flavored cake studded with chocolate bits, topped with a marshmallow frosting and capped off by a Hershey's chocolate square. It was the perfect balance of the three flavors. Additionally, this cupcake was a little smaller than all the others, making it more manageable (i.e. realistic) to finish.



What a challenge! I can't imagine anyone having the stamina to make it through all those cupcakes in one day. I've been inspired by all the flavors and toppings, but right now I need a break from cupcakes.

Souvlaki Burger Wraps

Lamb burgers are one of our favorites. The meat lends itself very well to grilling. Usually, we will buy a whole leg of lamb, grind the meat ourselves, and divide it into dinner-sized portions. We then freeze the extra portions for later. This way, we always have ground lamb on hand, since it can sometimes be difficult to find in stores.

I loved the meatball-size nuggets of these burgers. They cooked super-fast, and got a wonderful char on the outside. And I have a cooking confession: when I'm pressed for time, I will stop by a local Mediterranean restaurant and buy some of their tzatziki sauce. It's something I don't mind buying pre-made.


Souvlaki Burger Wraps
Adapted from Burgers
By Paul Gayler


Burgers:
1 ½ lbs coarsely ground lamb
½ c crumbled feta cheese
½ c finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 Tbs fresh mint, chopped
2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
½ tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper


4 flatbreads
Lettuce leaves
Sliced red onion
Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Tzatziki sauce


Mix all the burger ingredients together in a bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper. Chill for 1 hour.

Shape meat into 3-inch sized patties. Heat a grill until hot, and spray grate lightly with non-stick spray. Cook burgers for about 4-5 minutes until cooked through and lightly charred on the outside, turning burgers regularly. Remove from heat to a plate.

Place flatbreads on the grill and warm for about 30 seconds on each side. Place flatbreads on a plate. To assemble the wraps, sprinkle lettuce, red onion, and parsley on each flatbread. Place 3-4 burgers on top. Spoon tzatziki sauce over the meat. Roll up flatbread and eat.

Heath Bar Cookies

I'm in the process of cleaning out my pantry. I have lots of random candies in there - peanut butter cups, butterscotch chips, candy canes leftover from Christmas (okay, maybe those should be tossed)....and mini-Heath Bars.


Basically, this is a chocolate chip cookie recipe but with Heath bar bits and pecans. I like the combination of toffee and pecan - they have a similar crunch and balance each other out. We decided to freeze the cookie dough in individual portions so we can pop them in the oven whenever we feel like eating a few cookies. It saves us from going on a cookie eating binge, and I don't have to make cookies nearly as often whenever I have a craving.


Heath Bar Cookies
adapted from Simply Recipes


2 ½ c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c chopped Heath Bar pieces


Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Add in the flour mixture and mix until combined. Stir in the Heath bar chips. Chill dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat. Drop cookies in uniform scoops, placing 3 inches away from each other to allow cookies to spread. Bake 10-12 minutes, until the edges just start to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.